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US-VISIT falls shortBy Lou Dobbs YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT program has achieved "only the bare minimum" in tracking foreign travelers through the nation's 50 busiest land ports of entry, according to a new report by the department's inspector general. Fewer than 3 percent of all foreign visitors who enter the United States at land border crossings have their identities verified and checked against a database to ensure suspected criminals or terrorists are not allowed in the country, according to the report. US-VISIT debuted at the nation's airports and seaports early last year and expanded to 50 land ports of entry by the end of 2004. Although the currently small number of screened visitors is expected to grow as the program develops, the department's watchdog found several other problems in US-VISIT that limit its overall effectiveness. One of the inspector general's chief concerns in the report was that many foreign visitors are exempt from US-VISIT. Mexican citizens who hold Border Crossing Cards and Canadian citizens, who need only a driver's license to enter the United States, will not be subject to screening under the program. Mexican holders of such cards account for about 44 percent of land border crossings and Canadians account for about 22 percent, according to the report. According to US-VISIT, however, those visitors are already screened through different avenues from the US-VISIT program. The report found that customs and border protection officials are unable to fully screen even those visitors who are eligible for US-VISIT. Officers must check several databases to verify a traveler's identity, slowing the process considerably and leading to a less rigorous query, according to the report. US-VISIT administrators countered that those databases are now automatically checked, a development implemented after the inspector general made his observations. The inspector general also expressed concern that US-VISIT administrators still have not implemented a critical feature of the system: tracking whether a foreign visitor has left the country. An estimated 40 percent of the illegal aliens in the United States entered the country legally but overstayed their visas. But US-VISIT cannot currently determine where those people are, or even verify that visitors have left the country. US-VISIT officials responded that a trial exit program using radio frequency identification technology will be rolled out at five ports of entry this summer. The inspector general's report refrained from making any recommendations to US-VISIT administrators because the program is "evolving rapidly." It concluded, however, that an integrated entry exit system, which is required by law to be in place by the end of this year, is still a long way off. 
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